Bill Clinton's nomination speech for Obama

I got up to watch this speech. It is still going on. And the speech is so damn good, I want to live blog part of it. So, some of this thread is written in present tense - I was writing it as Clinton was speaking.

But I have to say that never in my life have I ever seen such a ringing endorsement of a sitting President from a former President, EVER. I have researched this, and indeed, this is the first time that a former President has actually addressed a national Convention to formally place the name of his party's successor in motion for renomination. The very first time.

But we have often seen endorsements from former Presidents for their party's next standard bearer - through print media, through press conferences, through ads. But we have never seen an endorsement like this one, ever. This is NEW.

Have you noticed how often that hall has been 100% silent to actually listen to former President Clinton and then explode into massive applause? We did not see this at the RNC.

But more importantly, Bill Clinton is using logic, a recollection of historical facts and fairness to present a real case FOR Barack Obama. His sentence "No one is right all the time and even a broken clock is right twice a day" was a brilliant way to remind us that cooperation is much better than confrontation. Bill Clinton is a MASTER of listing up to four things to remind people why he is either for or against something. His command of figures. as usual, is outstanding.

And Bill Clinton spoke directly about Obamacare and Medicaire. The Democrats are not running away from this. The are running ON it. The old Republican trick of saying nasty things to scare the fuck out of the nation and make Democrats cower will not work this time...

The Republicans have a problem on their hand after Bill Clinton's speech: he was and still is loved by the middle. People, even many who did not like him while he was in office, remember his administration's economic record.

He is tearing on Mitt Romney while not mentioning him much at all.

In short, his endorsement of President Obama has surprised even me for the depth of his endorsement.

About Paul Ryan, "you gotta give him something: it takes some brass to attack someone for doing what you do." (Best laugh line of the evening, I would bet).

And Clinton took the Republican lie about the adjustment to welfare reform - you know, the requests of REPUBLICAN governors for waivers for part of the welfare requirements - requests that President Obama listened to and decided to respond to, but requiring those Governor's to prove that they can and have moved 20% more unemployed back to work-rolls.

And notice how long this speech is, but no one in that hall is bored. No one. That are listening. Intently.

Notice the incredible cheers for Clinton, also very obviously from black attendees at the DNC. They love him just as they loved him in the 1990s and they are thrilled, visibly thrilled, that he is giving such a massive endorsement of Obama.

"WE simply cannot afford to give the reins down to someone who wants to double down on "trickle-down"".

Extremely powerful moment at the end when President Obama came out on the stage after the endorsement and the two hugged. This will become an iconic photo. So much for the Right-Wing wet dreams that the two somehow hate each other and that Bill Clinton was going to undo Barack Obama at the Convention...

Wolf Blitzer at CNN has described this as the best speech he has ever heard from the former President.

Begala: substantive and riveting.

The speech was 48 minutes and yet, I never once felt like it was too long. This is a gift that Bill Clinton has: to talk for a long time and people do not get tired of it.

Gergen: the most influential and effective speech Clinton has given since he left the presidency.

Alex Castellanos: when you leave tonight, lock the door. You don't need to come back tomorrow. This is the night that re-elected Barack Obama.

Update: I was writing very fast. Here is the exact quote: "When you leave tonight, lock the door. You don't need to come back tomorrow. This convention is done. This will be the moment that probably re-elected Barack Obama.”

(I just want to remind, Alex Castellanos is a Republican, I almost fell off my chair when I heard him say this)

John King: like every Clinton speech, he was like a hammer on nails on issues. But John King was pessmistic as to whether the Clinton speech may have moved many votes. But even if he moves 1% of the population, that shifts the margin by 2% and I suspect that Obama will indeed get a bounce out of this convention.

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And it looks like the Democrats are doing the roll-call vote. Wait and see if it will be turned into an acclamation vote.
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I got up to watch this speech. It is still going on. And the speech is so damn good, I want to live blog part of it.

But I have to say that never in my life have I ever seen such a ringing endorsement of a sitting President from a former President, EVER. This is the first time that a former President has actually addressed a national Convention to formally place the name of his party's successor in motion for renomination. The very first time.

But we have often seen endorsements from former Presidents for their party's next standard bearer - through print media, through press conferences, through ads. But we have never seen an endorsement like this one, ever. This is NEW.

Have you noticed how often that hall has been 100% silent to actually listen to former President Clinton and then explode into massive applause? We did not see this at the RNC.

But more importantly, Bill Clinton is using logic, a recollection of historical facts and fairness to present a real case FOR Barack Obama. His sentence "No one is right all the time and even a broken clock is right twice a day" was a brilliant way to remind us that cooperation is much better than confrontation. Bill Clinton is a MASTER of listing up to four things to remind people why he is either for or against something. His command of figures. as usual, is outstanding.

And Bill Clinton spoke directly about Obamacare and Medicaire. The Democrats are not running away from this. The are running ON it. The old Republican trick of saying nasty things to scare the fuck out of the nation and make Democrats cower will not work this time...

The Republicans have a problem on their hand after Bill Clinton's speech: he was and still is loved by the middle. People, even many who did not like him while he was in office, remember his administration's economic record.

He is tearing on Mitt Romney while not mentioning him much at all.

In short, his endorsement of President Obama has surprised even me for the depth of his endorsement.

About Paul Ryan, "you gotta give him something: it takes some brass to attack someone for doing what you do." (Best laugh line of the evening, I would bet)

I got up to watch this speech. It is still going on. And the speech is so damn good, I want to live blog part of it.

But I have to say that never in my life have I ever seen such a ringing endorsement of a sitting President from a former President, EVER. This is the first time that a former President has actually addressed a national Convention to formally place the name of his party's successor in motion for renomination. The very first time.

But we have often seen endorsements from former Presidents for their party's next standard bearer - through print media, through press conferences, through ads. But we have never seen an endorsement like this one, ever. This is NEW.

Have you noticed how often that hall has been 100% silent to actually listen to former President Clinton and then explode into massive applause? We did not see this at the RNC.

But more importantly, Bill Clinton is using logic, a recollection of historical facts and fairness to present a real case FOR Barack Obama. His sentence "No one is right all the time and even a broken clock is right twice a day" was a brilliant way to remind us that cooperation is much better than confrontation. Bill Clinton is a MASTER of listing up to four things to remind people why he is either for or against something. His command of figures. as usual, is outstanding.

And Bill Clinton spoke directly about Obamacare and Medicaire. The Democrats are not running away from this. The are running ON it. The old Republican trick of saying nasty things to scare the fuck out of the nation and make Democrats cower will not work this time...

The Republicans have a problem on their hand after Bill Clinton's speech: he was and still is loved by the middle. People, even many who did not like him while he was in office, remember his administration's economic record.

He is tearing on Mitt Romney while not mentioning him much at all.

In short, his endorsement of President Obama has surprised even me for the depth of his endorsement.

About Paul Ryan, "you gotta give him something: it takes some brass to attack someone for doing what you do." (Best laugh line of the evening, I would bet).

And Clinton took the Republican lie about the adjustment to welfare reform - you know, the requests of REPUBLICAN governors for waivers for part of the welfare requirements - requests that President Obama listened to and decided to respond to, but requiring those Governor's to prove that they can and have moved 20% more unemployed back to work-rolls.

And notice how long this speech is, but no one in that hall is bored. No one. That are listening. Intently.

Notice the incredible cheers for Clinton, also very obviously from black attendees at the DNC. They love him just as they loved him in the 1990s and they are thrilled, visibly thrilled, that he is giving such a massive endorsement of Obama.

"WE simply cannot afford to give the reins down to someone who wants to double down on "trickle-down"".

Extremely powerful moment at the end when President Obama came out on the stage after the endorsement and the two hugged. This will become an iconic photo. So much for the Right-Wing wet dreams that the two somehow hate each other and that Bill Clinton was going to undo Barack Obama at the Convention...

Wolf Blitzer at CNN has described this as the best speech he has ever heard from the former President.

Begala: substantive and riveting.

The speech was 48 minutes and yet, I never once felt like it was too long. This is a gift that Bill Clinton has: to talk for a long time and people do not get tired of it.

Gergen: the most influential and effective speech Clinton has given since he left the presidency.

Alex Castellanos: when you leave tonight, lock the door. You don't need to come back tomorrow. This is the night that re-elected Barack Obama.

(I just want to remind, Alex Castellanos is a Republican, I almost fell off my chair when I heard him say this)

John King: like every Clinton speech, he was like a hammer on nails on issues. But John King was pessmistic as to whether the Clinton speech may have moved many votes. But even if he moves 1% of the population, that shifts the margin by 2% and I suspect that Obama will indeed get a bounce out of this convention.

------------------------------------------------

And it looks like the Democrats are doing the roll-call vote. Wait and see if it will be turned into an acclamation vote.

""My guess is we will get a great rendition of how good things were in the 1990s, but we’re not going to hear much about how things have been the last four years,” Ryan told the crowd outside the Dallas County Courthouse. “And, by the way, under President Clinton, we got welfare reform. Chuck Grassley, everybody else in Congress -- we got welfare reform, which moved people from welfare to work to get people out of poverty. President Obama is rolling back welfare reform.” "